In the manufacture of labelled bottles a plastic sleeve label that is predecorated and printed is placed over the neck and closure end of a bottle by an automatic machine such as is disclosed in the application of S. W. Amberg, et al., Ser. No. 526,124 filed Nov. 22, 1974 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,013,496). Obviously, the sleeve is slightly larger in internal diameter than the neck of the bottle. Thereafter, the bottle and sleeve are conveyed together to a heating device whereat the sleeve is heated and shrunken in place snugly onto the bottle. To hold the sleeve in place on the bottle during transfer from the assembly station to the heating device, a spot of adhesive is applied to an area of the bottle surface on the neck prior to applying the sleeve. The sleeve, as it is automatically assembled with the bottle, is pressed against the adhesive which holds the sleeve in place until it is shrunken tightly to the neck. Furthermore, after the label is finished and on the bottle, the adhesive attaches the shrunken label to the neck of the bottle such that upon turning or unscrewing a closure which may also be encircled by the shrunken sleeve, the label is broken annularly near the base of the closure. This provides a means of detecting whether the bottled product has been previously opened or the closure loosened at the time of purchase by the retail customer.
In applying adhesives, a spray nozzle device has been tried, which has caused downtime in the manufacture due to the adhesive clogging the spray nozzle. The clogging of such equipment may also go undetected for a time, resulting in other manufacturing line defects.